Eifert, Goodman should be good to go following nicks

It wasn't readily apparent following Notre Dame's 41-3 thrashing of Miami (Fla.) on Saturday at Soldier Field in Chicago, but a pair of Fort Wayne natives weren't feeling their best.

Fighting Irish coach Brian Kelly said on Sunday that both Tyler Eifert and John Goodman, a pair of Bishop Dwenger High School alums, both suffered minor injuries during the game.

In the case of Eifert, the All-American junior tight end injured an elbow.

“Tyler got three stitches in his elbow,” Kelly said. “We got the stitches in it after the game. We looked at it and it looked clean, but there was a lot of dirt from the field and the turf itself being pulled up. But we got it cleaned out and there was no infection.”

Kelly didn't believe that there was any cause for concern from the Irish Nation about the status of one of his most valuable players heading into next Saturday's game with 17th-ranked Stanford.

“He'll be good to go on Tuesday (for practice),” Kelly said.

In the case of Goodman, the senior wide receiver had his “back lock up,” according to Kelly. But like Eifert, Goodman should be alright heading through this week.

“We think he'll be fine moving through the week,” Kelly said.

Where's Tyler?

A season after catching 63 passes, Eifert has seen his production fall off dramatically this season. He had just a pair of receptions in Saturday, one of which was a typical Eifert catch, meaning a leaping, stunning, how-did-he-do-that reception.

In the past three games, the senior has just four receptions, but Kelly isn't overly concerned, especially because of Eifert's influence on other aspects of the Notre Dame offense.

“(Miami) was rotating their coverage to Eifert quite a bit and again, it opened up a lot of things for us in the running game,” Kelly said. “You know, Tyler, he only got two catches but he impacts our offense incredibly. They are paying a lot of attention to him and it's opened up a lot of things.”

What uniform controversy?

The Irish unveiled – let's use the word “unique” – uniforms for their Shamrock Series game with the Hurricanes on Saturday. After the initial unveiling of the uniforms in August, the Notre Dame fans (at least the older ones) voiced their extreme displeasure with the garish gear. However, following the massive mauling of Miami, Kelly said he didn't hear too much negativity about the uniforms.